John Kerry, Do Your Duty

Warning

Democrats should face it: they are incompetent and
Bush will be reelected.

With less than two months to go before the election,
John Kerry is yet to address a single important issue.

William Rivers Pitt, who runs the liberal web site,
"Truthout,"
vented his frustration by declaring the election the
dumbest ever (Sept. 10). The entire election, thus far,
Pitt says, has been about Republican and Democratic TV
ads. [Dumbest.
Election. Ever.]

Pitt lists the real issues that remain unaddressed
before the electorate: a war based on intelligence
manipulation and deception, the loss of jobs, health
care`s rising cost and declining coverage, the
intelligence failures that enabled the terrorist attack
on September 11, America`s pariah standing in the world
community.

Pitt is correct that the election is being fought
over no important issue. However, even Pitt cannot avoid
including in his list of weighty matters "the fact
that military assault weapons will soon be making a
perfectly legal return to a neighborhood near you."
Pitt is referring to President George Bush`s intention
to permit the
ban on "assault weapons" to expire.

It must be something in the water that Democrats
drink. Kerry quickly picked up on this "important
issue," and charged that Bush was helping terrorism
by permitting Americans to own "assault weapons."

I certainly hope that Pitt and Kerry don`t think
Iraqis are being assaulted by our weapons and not by our
troops and leaders. There is no such thing as a separate
class of assault weapons. A vast array of items can be
used as weapons by one person to assault another.

Only an
aficionado can tell the difference between a rifle
that is currently banned as an
"assault" rifle and one that is not. I would bet
that Pitt and not even Kerry, who served in action in
Vietnam, would be able to identify which is which.

A political party that believes "assault weapons"are a serious issue on a level with job loss and war
cannot win a presidential election.

With the massive fear and hysteria over terrorism
that Republicans have whipped up, Americans probably
believe that they need "assault weapons" to
protect themselves from terrorists, who must be all
around us judging by the number of alerts.

By failing to address the serious issues, Democrats
are aiding and abetting a sinister revolution in the
Republican Party.

The Republican Party is no longer an uneasy alliance
of conservatives and moderates. The Republican Party has
been revolutionized by
neoconservatives. Its new spirit is Jacobin.

Jacobins have the confidence that comes from knowing
that they alone possess truth and virtue. They have no
ear for critics, or even for facts. Critics are enemies
and are interfering with the imposition of virtue. You
are with us or against us.

To get the full flavor of the neoconservatives`
Jacobin spirit, read Claes Ryn`s remarkable book,
America the Virtuous.

The New Republicans believe that America has a
monopoly on power as well as a monopoly on virtue.
America`s destiny is to use its power to impose its
virtue on the world—especially the Islamic part.

This agenda has nothing to do with a "war on
terror." However, it will create a lot of
terrorists.

And a lot of casualties.

The New Republican Party is a party of delusion.
Republicans are deluded not only about America`s
purpose, but also about America`s power.

American casualties in Iraq have passed the 8,000
mark. Every day we blow up more houses and buildings and
kill more women and children; and the attacks on our
troops increase by the day.

Delusion has such a powerful hold on the Bush
administration that despite being stalemated in Iraq,
high ranking administration officials are agitating to
invade Iran and Syria.

No such undertaking is conceivable without
reinstating the military draft. It would mean
generalized war in the Middle East and, likely, a world
war.

What has become of the bravery that John Kerry
demonstrated in Vietnam? If Kerry fails in his duty to
force a debate on real issues, Americans will reelect an
administration that will squander our treasure and the
blood of our sons in the Middle East.

The conservative movement in America is dead. There
is no conservatism in Bush`s budget and trade deficits,
none in his domestic policies, and none in his
diplomacy. There is no longer a conservative press; only
a Jacobin one.